Spy plane jaunt another bad look for de Blasio (commentary)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - More and more, you get the feeling that Mayor Bill de Blasio simply doesn't care what New Yorkers think about him.

Let's take de Blasio's recent family vacation in Canada. De Blasio and his wife, First Lady Chirlane McCray, and their two children visited Quebec earlier this month.

Time was built into the vacation for de Blasio to pop back to the city for a memorial event and street-naming ceremony in honor of slain NYPD Officer Miosotis Familia, who was gunned down in 2017.

Bravo. But what we didn't know at the time was that de Blasio was going to use a very deluxe mode of transportation on that jaunt back to the city.

No ordinary plane was good enough for the mayor. He had to take a multi-million-dollar anti-terrorism plane back and forth from the Great White North.

The plane is equipped with special sensors that can detect radiation, such as that used in "dirty bombs." It reportedly cost $6.8 million.

Was the mayor worried about an attack on himself? Was that why the plane was used for his transport?

What if there had been an incident where the plane would have been needed for its actual job, fighting terrorism? These days, you never know when such an event could take place.

OK, let's give de Blasio some credit first. He did interrupt his vacation to come back for the police ceremony. Given the mayor's sometimes rocky relationship with the NYPD, that's a plus.

But he couldn't fly commercial? Or maybe schedule his vacation around the ceremony? And, hey, it's only a six-hour drive to Montreal, less if you've got a siren on your SUV. He could have been driven there and back.

So, it was nothing but the best for the mayor, who likes to present himself as a man of the people, someone who's in touch with common folks. But there's nothing very proletarian about zipping around on a multi-million-dollar spy plane.

We don't know how much the ride itself cost. Nobody has said who made the decision to use the super spy plane for the mayor's trip. NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said the NYPD Intelligence Bureau decides how best to transport city executives.

And de Blasio doesn't seem too much mind the criticism that his little jaunt has generated. But others are pointing the finger, including Rep. Dan Donovan (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn), who called for a federal investigation into the mayor's use of the plane.

For Donovan, it raises all kinds of questions when a plane meant for homeland security purposes, and paid for by federal grants, is used for a personal trip.

Not only that, it's just a terrible look for the mayor. There are lots of perks if you're the mayor of the City of New York. But using a cool anti-terrorism plane for a personal trip is pushing it.

But appearances don't seem to disturb the mayor lately. Like when he went to Texas to view detention camps where people crossing the border illegally were being held. We're supposed to shrug that the mayor took time from governing the city for a photo-op where he has absolutely no control over the issue.

How did his concern for illegal immigrants look to folks in city public housing, for example, who are still waiting for their lead- and mold-tainted apartments to be remediated?

But now it turns out that de Blasio and his security detail may have done some illegal border crossing on that Texas trip. That's according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. De Blasio called the allegation "ridiculous." But even if it were true, you get the feeling that de Blasio would wear it like some badge of honor, like he now feels the pain of illegal immigrants.

And at least he didn't use a hot-rod spy plane to zap back and forth across the border.